Author: Lisa Mungovan

The Orionids meteor shower will be visible for a few weeks. The meteors are created by debris left by Halley’s Comet. Tonight will be the best time to see them, around 2:00 in the morning! Set your alarm and hope for clear skies, and you might get to wish on 20 shooting stars per hour!

How many buttons do you have on your clothes? Today is Count Your Buttons Day, so make sure they’re all firmly attached! Eat a delicious apple while you count, because it’s Apple Day! It’s also Reptile Awareness Day. Do lizards, snakes, alligators, or turtles live around your house? Be nice to them!

As a freshman, Dylan Ence visited a village in Mexico with his family, to donate school supplies. He wanted to do more, so he spent the next 4 years collecting backpacks, school supplies, and a school bus! He intends to donate the supply-filled bus to Patamban Michoacan, so kids don’t have to sleep at school!

Ihop might need to change its name to Tie-Hop: the Tiny International House of Pancakes. They’re opening a restaurant in Los Angeles that’s 170 square feet, and only holds 6 people! It will only be open for 4 days, and if you want a chance to eat there, you have to join their My-Hop club today.

Have you ever wanted to have a picnic in the grass, but it’s too cold or rainy? Suck UK sells a fleece blanket, printed with grass and tiny flowers, so you can eat inside! If you’d prefer eating on a picnic blanket, Redbubble sells a checkerboard blanket, complete with ants! Nothing can ruin picnic-time.

Have you ever waited so long to take a bath, you grew algae? Probably not, but the sloth does! It hangs upside-down in trees, moving incredibly slowly, growing algae for camouflage, and coming down once a week to poop. Start growing your fingernails into long claws, for next year’s International Sloth Day!

You can skip wearing a belt today. It’s Suspenders Day! In some countries, they’re called braces. Whatever you call them, rainbow-colored ones are a fun way to hold your pants up! It’s also International Chef Day. Wear a chef’s hat and try out a new recipe, or visit a restaurant to enjoy fine cuisine.

Have you ever lost your lost tooth? A first-grader from Gillett Elementary School lost a tooth at recess, but it disappeared. After a fruitless search, principal Curt Angeli wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy, to prove that the boy had really lost his tooth, so he could still get paid for it!

Do you know anyone that has a record collection? Vinyl records lost popularity as cassettes & CDs took over, but they’re starting to make a comeback. In fact, you can buy a vinyl presser, to make your own records at home! The phonocut is available for pre-order on kickstarter, but they won’t be shipped until 2020.

The Paris Zoo has 180 species to visit, from giraffes to penguins to zebras. This week, they’ll introduce a new species: the Physarum polycephalum. Zoo staff nicknamed it the blob, but it’s really a yellow slime mold. The blob likes to digest oatmeal. even though it doesn’t have a mouth or a stomach!